βιβλιο: "book"; σκώληξ: "worm"

Piper on Lloyd-Jones, part 6: Cessationism Quenches the Spirit

“Therefore, we may say emphatically that Lloyd-Jones was not a Warfieldian cessationist.

I think it is quite without scriptural warrant to say that all these gifts ended with the apostles or the Apostolic Era. I believe there have been undoubted miracles since then. (The Fight of Faith, 786; Joy Unspeakable, 246)

And when he speaks of the need for revival and for the baptism with the Holy Spirit and for a mighty attestation for the word of God today, it is crystal clear in Lloyd-Jones, he meant the same sort of thing as was meant in Acts 14:3, signs and wonders attesting to the Word of God. “It is perfectly clear…” – (Everything is perfectly clear to Martyn Lloyd-Jones) –

It is perfectly clear that in New Testament times, the gospel was authenticated in this way by signs, wonders and miracles of various characters and descriptions … Was it only meant to be true of the early church? … The Scriptures never anywhere say that these things were only temporary—never! – (you can hear him saying it, can’t you?) – There is no such statement anywhere. (The Sovereign Spirit, 31-32)

He deals with cessationist arguments, and says some mighty powerful things, that I can’t imagine Iain Murray would leave out of his biography, which he did. “To hold such a view as Warfield held is simply to quench the Spirit“ (SS, 46). Because Iain Murray was publishing it [Warfield] at the time. Pushing it. These views, according to their dear father, Dr. Jones, is the quenching of the Holy Spirit! and he didn’t want to lose his friends any more than he already was losing them, probably, and so he didn’t want them published until he was gone.“

3 thoughts on “Piper on Lloyd-Jones, part 6: Cessationism Quenches the Spirit”

Interesting stuff here — deep stuff, heavy stuff. I guess am basically a cessationist (although one who does not deny the power and prerogative of God) and was turned off by the lack of exegetical orientation in the only Piper book I ever scanned, so I was kind of skeptical at the slug/title of this blog, BUT I appreciated where you ended up very much. It is all about digging into our sacred texts and determining, as best we can, how God worked. Only when we deal with the situational texts on their terms can we begin to interpret and apply to our times.